Brilliant Greene, brilliant! Thank you SO much for this tip. I'm going to use it for sure! I have a little point & shoot camera & it just doesn't do macro shots. I've been frustrated. Now I won't be!

Oho! Tricky, tricky! I also use my camera to enlarge things I can't read or get close enough to see properly. And DH just recently bought me a loupe. Heh. Now all I need is a third hand.......

Good one woofie.... a third hand.... now where can I find 1 of those?

Ha! I think it's called a tripod!

I also take macro pics, knowing it will catch details that I don't see with my eyes.

Not only is this magnifying glass a great idea for you, Greene, but everything you see in the glass will be in camera focus, because all the light is emitted from an (almost) 2 dimensional plain (the lens), rather than a 3 dimensional plant. When the subject is 3 dimensional, there will always parts in sharp focus and parts in not so sharp focus. This focus trick can also be done with a mirror.

Ingenious!

Oh that is a good point, Rick! I hadn't thought of that! You know, I remember many long years ago, taking a picture with my little Instamatic camera through one of those big binocular thingies they used to have at scenic spots along the highway (do they still have those things?). I got a whole bunch of static about wasting film from the people I was with, but that darn picture came out great!

Wow, woofie. I wouldn't have thought there would be enough light for a film camera!

And an instamatic, at that! But I figured if I could see it, my camera could see it. So I held the camera lens right up against one of the lenses of the binocular thingie, and SNAP! It was a nice sunny day, up above the Sea Lion Caves in California. Came out quite nicely and I got to gloat! Still have the photo around here somewhere.

That is a very cool idea, Woofie! I love it!

Greene, you are a genius! I've used my camera to get a better look at things, sometimes that's still not enough! Can't wait to try this.

Oh boy...can't wait to play

OK -- so does this mean the answer to my previous question is yes, photograph the jeweler's loupe itself? But still, I'm not always able to get that to be a clear picture. Is there a way to make it focus? Or is this a way our camera is getting old and won't do new tricks? MR

Yes, I focused on the magnifier/lens/loupe. After about 80 tries I ended up with about 5 usable pictures.

greene said:Yes, I focused on the magnifier/lens/loupe. After about 80 tries I ended up with about 5 usable pictures.

OK, , next thing to try. My vision is fine, but I have a damaged nerve in my face that can't handle temperatures much below 70. Since it's still only 59 out there (it got down to 31.7 this morning) I'll have to go work on some houseplants... MR

P.S. Lynn, I put blankets on all my semps last night. I know. I'm a wimp and probably babying them too much, but I'd like them to have as much growing space as possible, and there aren't any more frosts in the immediate forecast...